Governor's Message

I’ve just returned from the fall Board of Governors meeting and wanted to send an update on ACP activities both national and local.

At the national level the Board of Governors reviewed about a dozen resolutions brought forward by local Chapters. Resolutions to be heard at the Spring, 2013 must be submitted to the College by November 20, 2012. If you have a resolution you would like to be considered, please submit to me no later than November 1. All resolution brought forward are discussed by the Chapter Governors and National Leaders in an on line format and then debated on the floor. The next step is that a reference committee reviews all the written and oral testimony and makes recommendations on the resolutions. On the final day of the meeting Governors have the opportunity to debate the resolutions, make recommendations for changes and then vote. We voted on resolutions ranging from recommending modifications to the current recertification process and maintenance of certification to recommending consideration of a Council of Retired Physicians to developing a position statement on Personal Responsibility in Health Care. As these resolutions move forward I will update you on the Chapter Website.

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Who is a Young Physician? The current ACP definition is a physician that graduated within the past 16 years. There is consideration of changing the name to “Early Career” to better reflect the demographics of this group.

Chapter Annual Meeting

November 16 -17

Our big local event, the Chapter Annual Meeting, is next month. Now is the time to sign up for this CME course. The meeting will take place on November 16th and 17th at The Washingon Marriott near George Washington Hospital ( 1221 22nd Street, NW). Highlights include a Washington Update, “Multiple Small Feedings of the Mind”, Cancer Survivorship, Dermatology in Primary Care, Update in Atrial Fibrillation, Pharmacovigilance and Psychopharmacology, and a Drug Development Update. The meeting will begin with a lunch on Friday. We have a room reserved for a sit down buffet luncheon so please plan to come early and enjoy lunch with your colleagues. I hope this lunch will be an opportunity for you to meet and interact with old friends and welcome new members. Friday night we are hosting a Young Physicians Reception to get the ball rolling for this new local group. We invite any ACP Members and Fellows within 16 years of finishing medical school to join us for the Reception. Young Physician non- members are likewise encouraged to join us and learn more about the ACP. Saturday morning we are offering a buffet breakfast for all attendees. We will have specific tables set aside for Retired Physicians, Women Physicians, Internal Medical Graduates, and Young Physicians. On Saturday we will hold our Awards Luncheon to celebrate the accomplishments of local physicians who are receiving Chapter awards as well as National Awardees and new Masters of the College. The meeting concludes with an Associates’ Poster Session. We hope attendees will come out and support the local Residents by attending the poster session. We welcome members of the community who would like to judge.

Call for Nominations

We are looking for ACP Members interested in running for election to the Governor’s Council. The Council is responsible for determining what local programs we sponsor, oversees our budget, and helps guide the direction of the Chapter. Council members are expected to attend 2 meetings a year and to keep in touch through on-going email dialogue about Chapter matters. We are looking for at-large candidates to run for 2 year positions and a Vice President. The current membership of the Council is made up of mainly of local Committee Chairs.

Upcoming Local Activities

This year we are starting a series of Salon Dinners. The concept is to allow a small group of physicians to gather over a meal to discuss a topic of interest. Our first Salon Dinner was held on October 17th. The topic is “All You Need to Know About Immunizations for the Internist”. Future salon dinner dates are tentatively planned for January 23, 2013 and April 23, 2013.

Awards Committee

Robert Wilkinson, MD, MACP, Chair

The DC Chapter will present awards to recognize the accomplishments of these physicians at the November 17 Awards Luncheon to be held at the Washington Marriott (1221 22nd Street NW) in conjunction with the annual Scientific meeting.

We also wish to congratulate David Borenstein, MD, FACP and Cynthia Dunbar, MD, FACP who were elected to Mastership in the College as well as Kenneth Becker, MD, MACP who will receive the John Phillips Memorial Award for Outstanding Work in Clinical Medicine and N. Thomas Connally, MD, MACP who is the recipient of the Ralph Claypoole Memorial Award for Devotion of a Career in Internal Medicine to the Care of Patients. Masterships and National Awards will be conferred at the ACP Internal Medicine 2013 Session in April. The new Masters and National Awardees will also be recognized at our Awards Luncheon.

DC ACP Health and Public Policy Committee

Lawrence (Larry) E Klein, MD, MACP, Chair

This DC ACP Health and Public Policy Committee is composed of eleven local members and prepares resolutions for the Board of Governors meetings, as well as discusses health care and public policy issues affecting internists.

Currently, we are preparing three resolutions for the Spring2013 Board of Governors Meeting. The first resolution asks that ACP request the RRC to streamline and make more relevant procedures used in reviewing residency training programs. The second resolution asks that ACP construct and present to the AMA potential new/alternative coding formats for E&M visits which would more accurately and completely capture the type and amount of work which goes into caring for medical patients. Such modifications in coding could hopefully lead to more just reimbursement for the time and effort expended on caring for our patients. The third resolution asks that ACP include as one of its formal strategic priorities the promotion of the personal and professional well being of its members. ACP general policy is centered on satisfying its limited number of formal strategic priorities. We believe that the well being of our membership should be a formal strategic priority on par with strategic priorities aimed at influencing health care policy in general in our country.

The American College of Physicians and the DC Chapter encourages all members to help strengthen the voice of internal medicine by recommending ACP Membership to colleagues. By joining the College, your colleagues will enrich their clinical knowledge and skills and have access to all of the ACP member benefits that you enjoy.

To thank you for your dedication to our organization, ACP offers incentives to members and their chapters that recruit new members through the Recruit-a-Colleague Chapter (RACC) Rewards Program.

As with the national Recruit-a-Colleague Program, the RACC Program rewards successful individual recruiters with dues credits for each new full Member recruited and a chance to win a trip to the annual Internal Medicine meeting. In addition, the RACC Program also provides rewards to the recruiters’ chapters. The Recruit-a-Colleague Chapter Rewards Program runs annually from April 1 through March 15.

To participate, simply forward to your colleagues the Membership application found at www.acponline.org/racc. To qualify for the program, your name must be listed on the recruiter line of this specially coded application.